Letters To Juliet
by RamdomlyHanna
Summary: Jily AU of the Letters to Juliet movie


INT. LILY AND SEVERUS'S APARTMENT, NEW YORK

\- NIGHT

A well-decorated one-bedroom apartment in the Meat Packing District. Long strands of freshly made pasta hung to dry in the living room. Hundreds of pieces. Draped off lamps, across tables, over chairs, everywhere. It's an extraordinary sight.

Amongst this adornment of noodles, we find a beautiful young woman on the couch working on a laptop, trying to concentrate.

She seems a bit distracted by the pasta that surrounds her. She Is Lily Evans. Lily sighs as she looks up from her computer at the sounds of cooking that can be heard coming from the kitchen. Where a man toils over a pot of simmering tomato sauce. He is a tall Italian-American with big brown eyes. He is Severus. Severus tastes the sauce he's cooking the way a sommelier tastes wine. Slow and deliberate. He's pleased but subdued. Severus carefully plates some of that fresh pasta with his sauce and takes it into the living room.

Lily looks stressed out. She keeps glancing at what looks like a draft of a magazine article, certain parts have been highlighted. She's in the middle of typing something when Severus approaches with the plate of food.

-Here, taste.

\- OK, gimme a second. - Severus waits impatiently as Lily finishes typing. She sets aside the article and dutifully takes a forkful and eats it. Severus watches her closely as she chews, tastes, swallows. - Delicious. Your best yet. Really. - Lily reaches for the article just as a piece of pasta slips off a lamp and falls onto the page.

She picks it off. Lily's affirmation hasn't convinced Severus, he tastes just the sauce as if trying to pinpoint a flaw.

\- There's not too much garlic?

Lily looks up from her laptop - a little annoyed.

\- Just enough garlic.

\- Too spicy?

\- Good spice. – She tries to go back to work. He's still standing there.

\- Maybe it needs more basil?

-Severus I'm saying it's delicious.

\- You're saying it's delicious but you're not telling me it's delicious.

\- Sweetie, please, I have to finish this, Horácio needs this tonight, I still have to pack, could you think out loud in the kitchen? You're not doing much for my concentration.

Realization flashes in Severus's eyes. He tastes again.

\- That's it. It's too concentrated. – Severus plants a big kiss on a startled Lily. – Thanks babe.

Lily shakes her head and goes back to work as Severus heads into the kitchen muttering to himself.

EXT. APARTMENT BUILDING, NEW YORK –

\- MORNING

The doors of the building open. Lily and Severus emerge. She is carrying a suitcase as he follows her reading a Gourmet Magazine. They walk down the steps to a waiting cab.

-Passports? – Severus asks

\- Yep.

\- Tickets?

\- Yep.

\- Apartment reservation?

\- Yep.

\- Euros?

\- Yep.

\- Suitcase?

They reach the cab. She turns to him. Smirks.

\- I have mine.

He looks down at his empty hands.

\- Shit. – He runs back into the building as she puts her case in the trunk and gets in the cab.

Lily waits. The trunk is slammed and Severus gets in.

\- JFK please. – Lily asks

\- Actually, sweetie, I just have to make one stop. – She knows where. She just looks at him and asks to the cab driver to go to the restaurant

The restaurant is basically a building site. It's a fantastic space but right now it'd take an experienced eye to fully appreciate it's potential. Severus is looking at an assortment of light fittings with MARK, his bartender. Lily walks through the mess with a slightly detached air of curiosity. Builders are at work all around her.

Her cell rings. She checks the ID. Takes a breath. Answers.

\- Hey Horácio. – on the other end of the line Horácio Slughorn, editor-in-chief, a rotund, bald, but benevolent looking man is talking on a wireless earpiece in a cluttered office. He's looking at an 8x10 photograph of Donald Trump.

– Why can't we say Trump's comb over wraps around clockwise? I'm looking at the picture we're running with the piece. It's wrapping clockwise.- Lily has made her way outside the restaurant.

– You can say it. You just can't state it as a fact.

\- It works better as a fact. It's a fun little detail. People love fun little details.

\- I looked at every picture I could find of him in the last ten years. I talked to his stylist. The hair changes. It's a fact if you qualify with "usually" or "typically"

\- People hate qualifiers. – Lily shrugs as if to say "What do you want me to say?"

\- Those are the facts.

\- Yeah well your facts are getting in the way of my fun. - Horácio sets the picture aside. A beat.

\- Hey. While I have you. I wanted to talk you about something... – Lily is pacing now. She's visibly nervous - like she's debating whether or not to just get off the phone.

\- Talk.

\- Well. I was thinking. Since I'm going to Italy already. Maybe I could try doing a travel piece or something as a feature or-

-I have writers that do travel features. You don't do travel features. You do fact checking.

\- Yeah. I know. I just. I was thinking I could try something new.

\- Why do you want to try something new? You're good at fact checking. Too good. - Horácio's Assistant hurries out to answer a ringing phone.

\- I feel like I can contribute more —

\- You contribute plenty. My writers count on you. They can't do what they do unless you do what you do. You're good at something, be happy for that, be grateful for it, a lot of people are good at nothing.

\- Yeah. I guess. It's just- His Assistant signals that Horácio needs to take the call.

\- Keep swinging in your wheelhouse. You'll get more hits. – She sighs - deflated. Horácio suddenly remembers something.

\- Oh and I need a table at Babbo this Friday. Can you take care of it?

\- Seriously Horácio. You do know that you have a new assistant?

\- I do. But she doesn't know the Maitre d'. You do. You got it?

\- I got it.

\- You're one in a million kid. – He rolls to that waiting call.

\- LATER

Lily sits staring out the window, lost in her thoughts. Severus gets in, breathless and excited.

\- Verona here we come. - He notices Lily not sharing his enthusiasm. - What's wrong? – Lily just kind of shakes her head as if to say "nothing". - What'd Horácio want?

\- To argue about which direction Trump's comb over wraps.

\- Counter clockwise?

\- He still treats me like I'm his assistant. He'll always treat me like I'm his assistant.

\- It's not that bad. He values you. Hey, you've got job security right? - She just looks at him.

\- Right. - Content he's made her feel better Severus dives back into his Gourmet Magazine. They ride in silence. Until.

\- I took the job because I thought it'd be a stepping stone... to features, or covers, or something. But there are no steps, there are no stones, there's just Donald Trump's hair. – She sighs - a sigh that's looking for reassurance.

\- You know you could always come work with me at the restaurant.

\- I know. And I appreciate it.

\- You'd be great in fine dining.

\- So I've been told... by you.

\- You would be. You're beautiful, smart, funny. You could run the place if you wanted. She smiles.

\- You just said I was beautiful. You never tell me I'm beautiful.

\- You know you're beautiful. – He puts an arm around her and pulls her towards him. - Come on. Cheer up. Just forget it. That's why we're going to Italy right? To forget everything... the magazine, the restaurant.

\- We're going to Verona to meet the suppliers for your restaurant. How are we supposed to forget about it?

\- It's not just gonna be about the restaurant.

\- It's fine.

\- It's not just gonna be about the restaurant. We're gonna relax, see the sights, shop the stores, it won't just be about the restaurant, I promise. It's gonna be great...

Lily wants to believe him but still looks skeptical.

\- We're going to the home of Romeo and Juliet. How romantic is that? - Didn't exactly work out for them though did it? – Lily says tired

A street that embodies true Verona, hidden away from the well-worn tourist routes. A small restaurant runs down one side of the street with tables filled with locals eating lunch.

Lily's sits on the balcony of a rented apartment just above this restaurant. She's reading a guide book to Verona while occasionally looking down on life in the street below.

\- So I think we should start with the Verona Arena then head over to the Museo Castelvecchio... – Severus takes the guide book from her, tosses it on the bed.

\- No, no, no, no, what are you doing? That stuff's for tourists. To discover the true heart and soul of any country, first you have to indulge in it's smells and tastes.

\- She just looks at him. Sometimes he's so full of it.


End file.
